War of Words
Britain, France and Discourses of Empire during the Second World War
Author(s): Rachel Chin
🚚 Free UK delivery on books (excluding sale). T&Cs apply.
Free click & collect on all orders.
War of Words argues that the conflicts that erupted over French colonial territory between 1940 and 1945 are central to understanding British, Vichy and Free French policy-making throughout the war. By analysing the rhetoric that surrounded these clashes, Rachel Chin demonstrates that imperial holdings were valued as more than material and strategic resources. They were formidable symbols of power, prestige and national legitimacy. She shows that having and holding imperial territory was at the core of competing Vichy and Free French claims to represent the true French nation and that opposing images of Franco-British cooperation and rivalry were at the heart of these arguments. The selected case studies show how British-Vichy-Free French relations evolved throughout the war and demonstrate that the French colonial empire played a decisive role in these shifts.
- Gives readers a transnational and comparative perspective of the Second World War
- Links policy making with the public sphere, showing how rhetoric can be used to bridge this gap
- Will attract an interdisciplinary audience including scholars in modern British and French history, international relations, foreign policy, the history of empire and the history of the Second World War